In the wake of Copenhagen, an unheralded but hard-fought No Nukes victoryhas moved us closer to a green-powered Earth.

It has happened in upstate New York, where the Unistar Nuclear Energyfront group asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to delay itsapplication to build a reactor at Oswego, near Syracuse. Meanwhile, inTexas, the San Antonio city council's deliberations over building twonew reactors has disintegrated into recriminations, resignations andfirings over a multi-billion-dollar price jump in projected costestimates, a furor that could doom reactor construction there as well.And in Vermont, Entergy has threatened to shut its Yankee reactor ifthe legislature does not approve a complex maneuver that would allowits owners to escape certain financial liabilities.

Throughout the US, while the corporate media hypes a "renaissance" ofnew nukes, facts on the ground say the opposite is happening. Thelonger that trend continues, the more likely we are to win a worldpowered by the Solartopian technologies that really work, includingwind, solar, geothermal, sustainable bio-fuels, increasedefficiency/conservation, and more.

With help from key Congressional Democrats, a wide range oforganizations and individuals rallied to get the $50 billion packageout of proposed energy legislation. Grassroots opposition has sincebeaten the proposed guarantees two more times.

It is as yet unclear what new reactor funding will come from Washingtonin the near future. There is still an $18.5 billion loan guarantee fundleft over from the Bush Era. But the Department of Energy has run intoserious political and procedural problems in administering the money.It may soon announce one or more new reactor projects designated to getthe money, possibly including one in Georgia, where ratepayers havebeen put on the line to underwrite construction even if the plant neveropens.

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Republican proposals for virtually unlimited future loan guarantees arenow being targeted for a Climate Bill and other legislation that may ormay not make it through Congress in the coming months. Sen. John McCain(R-AZ) and other industry supporters are pushing hard for major federalfinancing. The Obama Administration has made some pro-nuclearrumblings, but remains elusive in terms of firm commitments.Because the reactor industry cannot get private financing for newreactors, all the pro-nuke rhetoric in the world will mean nothingwithout federal subsidies. After 50 years, the industry doesn't haveWall Street's backing. Nor can it get private liability insurance incase of a major disaster. And it still lacks a solution for itsradioactive waste problem.

Most critically of all, the longer new construction is delayed the lesscompetitive the industry becomes. Cost estimates are literally all overthe map, with $7-9 billion for a 1000 megawatt reactor being currentused as a benchmark. But even that is not expected to last. The Oswegoproject involves a design financed by the French government. Thislatest setback indicates even they may not be as bullish on reactors asthey hype would indicate. As Michael Mariotte of the NuclearInformation & Resource Service puts it, "Unistar's postponement isjust another indicator that new reactors will not be built unlessAmerican taxpayers are forced to take the financial risk."

Thus as the dust settles from the failures in Copenhagen, the US mightlook to the conference's host country. In the 1970s a powerful Greenmovement stopped the Danes from going nuclear. Instead, as even the NewYork Times's pro-nuclear Thomas Friedman has recently acknowledged,Denmark successfully focussed on wind power. Today the wind industry isone of Denmakr's top employers, and is a major source of both cleangreen energy and significant financial profit.

Throughout the world, the cost of renewables is plummeting whilereactor prices soar. So if America's thus-far successful grassrootscampaign against massive federal loan guarantees and other nuclearbailouts can continue, we just might find ourselves on a parallel pathto a green-powered Earth.

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Harvey Wasserman's SOLARTOPIA! OUR GREEN-POWERED EARTH is at www.harveywasserman.com, as is HARVEY WASSERMAN'S HISTORY OF THE US. He is senior advisor to Greenpeace US, and senior editor of www.freepress.org.